Converting integration into transformation: creating a market leading Asset Finance business

The Problem

Having acquired the three Asset Finance businesses of Abbey, ING Lease faced the challenge of turning an acquisition into a success; how to turn a string of businesses distributed evenly around the M25 into a single and successful enterprise which would justify the initial and ongoing investments. We were commissioned to support and guide ING Lease through this integration to create a single, successful £3 billion enterprises.

Our Solution

We recognised that ING Lease could use integration as an opportunity to transform how it operated. Working with the new senior leadership team, we challenged their views on what was possible for the business. They signed up to a new approach to improved portfolio and risk management; one which would allow them to surgically target sales to where the optimum balance of risk-return could be made. Once agreed, our key activities were to :

Design what the new business would look like. We worked with the senior leadership team to design and agree a Target Operating Model. This set out, on a single page, how the new enterprise would operate, including organisational structure, processes, procedures, performance measures and behaviours. We agreed that it would be a single business, on a single new site, with benchmark performance characteristics, underpinned by effective portfolio and risk management.

Map the organisations to the new structure. We worked directly with the senior leadership team and their direct reports to identify where legacy functions and resource would go in the new world. We focused in particular on developing the new leadership structure and behaviours as we knew that these would prove critical for the new organisation.

Plan the migration and key transition points. We designed a clear programme structure and plan for creating the new organisation and migrating legacy functions and resources. This included key transition points – where staff transferred, books migrated and new capabilities were required. By planning these points, we supported a synchronised customer communication process - keeping customers on board as accounts and relationships changed.

Coach and support the leadership team throughout the successful implementation. We continued to work with the leadership team throughout the exercise, advising on how to resolve issues and challenging them to make the integration a success.

Client's Benefits

Through our support, the businesses were integrated without a hitch and the transformation was equally successful. The merger of ING Lease and Abbey created a new business widely recognised as the most efficient and profitable leasing business in Europe, delivering a RoE of over 25% and a RoA of almost 3%. As reported in Leasing Life on 1st November 2012, ‘ING is commonly credited for the broker market being the fastest-growing segment of UK asset finance over the last year’.